You know, the one thing that always bugged me about Voyager, as I rewatch it, is that the writers could not understand the directional context of "upload" and "download"
"I'm downloading the coordinates to Tuvok's tricorder now"
No.. You're on the ship, the tricorder is on the planet. That's PUSHing the information, and thus an "upload". I know the planet is "down"... But that is not how this works my dude.
@Routhinator What's interesting about it is that at the time that was written, the concepts were not as popularly accepted as they are now.
This is a fun one to flip around. What if...
Downloaded works from a larger system to a smaller system. And Uploaded worked from a smaller system to a larger system.
that is how they decided to do it.
Weird now. But if you look at how the cloud is used... it's not that weird.
What changes is what the frame is.
It's a fun one to think on.
@knowprose the definition of the terms and their use from my perspective as an early computer nerd and now longtime tech professional, is that the correct one is always based on the actor.
In a connection between two computing nodes, regardless of location or type, only one initiates an action. The other accepts it. Any data transfers designation of upload or download is based on the action of the initiator.
If the initiator wants to transfer a file to a remote node, that is an upload. The initiating node is "uploading to the remote", and the remote node is " receiving an upload".
If the initiator wants to transfer a file from a remote node, that is a download. The initiator is "downloading from the remote" and the remote is "transferring a download"
@Routhinator oh, I agree with 3 decades behind me. But flipping systems is always fun in sci-fi.
It allows us to look at things another way.
Interestingly, 'share' is relatively new, because in the younger days of technology we needed the vector at the design level. That we talk about share now incorporates both.
It's a pretty cool thing when you see how that is changing.🙃
@knowprose @Routhinator To some degree I suspect this line was *really* just the #StarTrek writers looking to cram more technobabble into the dialogue.
A more normal way to say this would be:
"I'm sending the coordinates to Tuvok's tricorder."
or even more simply:
"I'm sending the coordinates to Tuvok." (Because his tricorder is the only obvious receiver for this purpose, and Tuvok is a competent Starfleet officer who would know to look there for the coordinates.)
@DanielMReck @Routhinator Yeah, I can't speculate on the intent. But they were consistent.
And your observation is true. I guess when you have to fill a show for 30 minutes... lol
Maybe it was an accident and I'm just weird to have noticed.
@knowprose You're NOT weird for having noticed. This stuff grabs my attention constantly.
After replying to you, my partner and I spent 20 minutes discussing how frequently these goofy dialogue choices happen in #StarTrek, #Stargate, and #NCIS.
So often, it seems the writers feel the need to explain things to the audience rather than just having the actors show how something works by using it as though the character thinks it is completely natural.
@DanielMReck @Routhinator funny. I write and I did not notice it.
But yes, it's there. I see it now. I have seen it elsewhere but, maybe because of early exposure and suspended disbelief, I was blind to it. 🤣
That's cool. I love peering around my corners. Thanks!
@Routhinator I think part of our weirdness with this also probably connects with common use cases for personal electronics.
If I'm transferring music from my computer to a personal media player (so, even think back to early 2000s mp3 player), I am in control of both devices in that transfer and the actor gets fuzzy.
In common experience, I think probably more people would have said "I'm downloading it to my mp3 player" than "I'm uploading it to my mp3 player". Definitely "I'm transferring it to my mp3 player" seems simpler, and the example also get a bit weird because that would generally (at least at the time) have been a local connection transfer across eg USB, rather than a network transfer with a clear initiator and receiver.
Anyhow:
I love these little idiosyncrasies of clear technical terms meeting popular culture as well as when they "reach escape velocity" in common "lay" usage.
Chris Routh (He/Him)
Taran Rampersad
Daniel M. Reck
Hugo Slabbert ⚠️
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